The Ultimate Game: Get Inside Guardiola’s Head

The Ultimate Game: Get Inside Guardiola’s Head

This is your chance to prove not only your knowledge about the game of football, but also your psychological insight by cracking the code of Barcelona coach Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola’s master brain:

Predict Barcelona’s Starting Lineup

This is not (as in: N-O-T) a place for discussion on team tactics or personal player preferences. You just give the system and the eleven names you think will start the game against BATE Borisov. Line-ups posted in the comments sections will not be considered as valid entries for the game.

Join us after the jump to take part in the game.

You can give your starting line-up until 1:45 hours before the start of the game (20:45 hours Barcelona time – therefore, predictions stop at 19:00 Barcelona time).

Those who predict the starting 11 correctly will earn a point for that particular game.

The one with the most points at the end of the season will be declared the winner.

Note: The rule of guessing your team before Guardiola names his squad and getting an extra point has been cut.

To get started, select a formation from the drop-down menu, and hit the “Change Formation” button.



Winners after 19 games:

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  1. Indy_Barca says:

    Lol, i don't even want to try. I'm scared! :P

  2. BarcaMax says:

    24 different formations in 24 games!!! No thanks hahaha!!!
    btw vote for Team 2011 here: http://www.uefa.com/community/teamoftheyear/
    Barca players FTW

    • Simi says:

      Valdes, Alves, Thiago Silva, Pique, Abidal, Shaqiri, Xavi, Iniesta, Hazard, Messi, Van Persie, Pep!

    • Marc4barca says:

      I went with:

      Valdes
      Alves – Pique – Vidic – Abidal
      Goetze – Xavi – Iniesta – Bale
      Messi – Van Persie

      Voted for van persie just because he was undeservedly left out of the final 23 for ballon. I'm quite sure Falcao deserves that other striker spot though. what a season he had with porto and a great start with atletico. for LM it seemed it was put there for bale to win considering the other candidates don't even deserve to be there other than hazard, luka modric and silva should have both been in that category. they should of done 4-3-3 instead of 4-4-2. Can someone tell what arjen robben did last season to be a nomineee? Obviously i went with pep as manager but what was really satisfying was that mourinho wasn't even there.

      • Anonymous_69 says:

        I was going to thumb you down, but then I saw the selection there was too choose from. Terrible! Anyways, my lineup will probably get more thumb-downs than yours :p

        Valdes
        Alves – Hummels – Thiago Silva – Abidal
        Goetze – Xavi – Iniesta – Hazard
        Messi – Ronaldo

        That's my completely unbiased selection. Pique was off form badly last season. Masch is the best CB out there for my money (besides maybe Thiago Silva), but last season he only made that transition there in around March. For that reason, neither Pique nor Masch deserve the CB spot for last season's best team. In right and left midfield, the options were awful. I guess Goetze deserves is, as he was actually very impressive last season. And although Hazard had struggled a few years back, he stepped it back up last and played well. Alves, Abidal, Xavi, and Iniesta are very easy choices. Messi too, of course. For the other forward spot, I think Ronaldo deserves it. I mean, it doesn't matter how many of them were tap-ins, 53 goals is insanely impressive. Cavani and Falcao also had fair shouts, but Ronaldo just edges it for me.

    • Blaugrana says:

      Valdes: deserves it after 3.5 fantastic years

      Alves: simply the best DR
      Pique & Masch: Thiago Silva prob deserves a spot but Masch his transformation to CB was sublime, Kompany was great too.
      Abidal: who else?

      Gotze: fantastic year for the youngster, won the Golden Boy as well
      Xavi: who else?
      Iniesta: Ozil and Silva were great too but Andrés is a level above them (would have voted for Silva as AML if I could)
      Hazard: Lille won the league thanks to him, Bale was good too but Hazard made more impact

      Messi: though choice between him and a certain Portugese fella…
      Aguero: Falcao his season was sublime but isn't shining that luch at Atletico, Van Persie is scoring goal after goal now but Aguero did it good at Atletico and had no difficulties adapting to EPL.

      Pep: Por que no Mourinho???

    • Noro says:

      all barca + hazard, götze y cavani.

    • Petertits10 says:

      nice! I for the Team 2011 I went with
      Valdes
      Alves
      Mascherano
      Pique
      Abidal
      Xavi
      Gotze
      Bale
      Iniesta
      Messi
      Aguero

      Guardiola

    • Walter says:

      Valdes
      Alves-David Luiz-Pique-Bale
      Xavi-Busquets-Iniesta
      Messi-Sanchez-Neymar

  3. Shola says:

    I’ll rather predict d starting line up 4our match against Madrid!

  4. MVPFan says:

    I'll just wait to see the lineup, never got this thing right :P

  5. Rom1 says:

    What do you think of that???
    Pinto;
    Montoya, Piqué, Fontas, Maxwell;
    Thiago,Dos Santos,S.Roberto;
    Cuenca, RAFINHA , Pedro

    • Søren Mortensen says:

      I guessed exactly the same, exept that I had Pedro right and Cuenca left.
      Also considered Batra instead of Pique, think Pique might be a bit injuired and with Batras upcomming promotion, he could get minutes.

  6. Tete10 says:

    Wheres the amoeba formation?

  7. barcacule says:

    I really hope we'll register a huge margin of victory on Saturday, although very unlikely, because it would totally demoralised Real for the rest of their season while lifting ours up significantly. Pep, please suprise us cules with your magic!

  8. love me barca says:

    i select same rom1 has said.

    Pinto

    Montoya,fontas,pique,maxwell

    S.roberto,JDS,thiago

    Cuenca,rafinha,pedro

    Its great that see alcantara brothers play together.i wait for it.

  9. Matty says:

    I feel like this weeks Ultimate Game is a moot point….He's resting over half of the first team. But, props to whoever gets it right! haha

  10. love me barca says:

    i love bartra, i want to see him in line up too.but with pique,fontas in line up,probably he come 2nd half for pique.

    Subs:
    Bartra,Delofeu,muniesa/kiko
    But its pity that all our players (s.gomes,riverola,kiko/muniesa ) cant play in this match!

  11. Some - Body says:

    Let's join this guys Keite obsession for fun
    My line up for Mad:
    —————-Keite—————-
    Keite—-Keite—-Keite—-Keite
    ——-Keite–Keite–Keite——-
    ——-Keite–Keite–Keite——-

    Manager: Keite
    Keite's mom: Keite
    Keite'c chef: Keite
    Referee: Keite
    Linesman: Keite
    Grass: Keite
    Ball: Keite
    Chuck Norris: Keite
    My desklamp: Keite
    Africa: Keite
    World: Keite
    Justin Bieber: Cristiano

  12. SamperFCB says:

    Pinto
    Montoya – Pique – Fontas – Maxwell
    Sergi Roberto – Dos Santos – Thiago
    Pedro – Rafinha – Cuenca

  13. SISI says:

    Get Inside Guardiola’s Head

    Can i don't :)

  14. Blaugrana says:

    I went with

    Pinto
    Montoya Fontas Bartra Maxwell
    Thiago Keita Jonathan
    Pedro Villa Delofeu

    Would love to see Muniesa, Rafinha and Roberto come in after the first half.

  15. hector says:

    I have a suggestion for the scoring of this game. Perhaps one point should be awarded for each player predicted correctly? This would allow more differentiation between the leaders. Currently we have many people tied with only one correct guess. I think this would be more fair and exciting!

  16. minges86 says:

    I went
    Pinto
    Montoya, Pique,Fontas,Maxwell
    Thiago, Dos.Santos, Rafinha
    Cuenca,Pedro, Deulofeu

    Pep has played pedro in the false 9 position before, i think he might do it again, it would be good for pedro to get some run in his legs, same with pique.
    So hard to pick a team tho… for all we know Messi could either be rested or play full 90mins! everytime we think one, it turns out to be the other :P

    I hope rafinha and thiago can play some time together. I see pep picking a different midfield than me, i bet kieta will play. damn it!! too many options!!

  17. FCBLife says:

    is grimaldo added to the squad to face base?

  18. Anonymous_69 says:

    Pinto
    Montoya Bartra Gomez Maxwell
    JDS-Fontas-Thiago
    Kiko-Rafa-Pedro (if he's not fully fit, then Deulofeu)

  19. meEEE says:

    pinto
    montoya-pique-fontas-maxwell
    JDS
    thiago-roberto
    cuenca-pedro-tello

  20. david says:

    clasico 11

    valdes

    alves gerard puyol(masch?!) abidal

    busi
    andres xavi

    messi villa
    cesc

  21. barcafanir says:

    Allas made a movie for Classico about Xavi, Iniesta and Messi with beautiful analysis! Must see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AiyUfxId90&fe

  22. Barcelona4ever says:

    Montoya and bartra will be promoted next season…
    Looking forward to tomorrows game.

  23. Walter says:

    Pinto
    Dos Santos-Pique-Fontas-Maxwell
    Thiago-Sergi Roberto-Rafinha
    Cuenca-Kiko-Pedro

  24. comatose_011 says:

    —–Pinto—-
    Montoya—Pique—-Fontas—Maxwell–
    Thiago—Dos Santos—-Rafinha—
    Cuenca —Pedro—-Deulofeu

  25. Cristina_Cabron says:

    Pinto;
    Montoya, Bartra, Fontas, Maxwell/Kiko;
    Thiago,Dos Santos,S.Roberto;
    Deulofeu, Rafinha , Cuenca
    :D

  26. scopeydu! says:

    Pinto

    Pique bartra fontas maxwell

    Tiago rafihna dossantos

    Pedro duelouf cuenca

  27. Sergio gogomi says:

    Pinto
    .
    montoya, pique, fontas, maxwell
    .
    Thiago, s. roberto, dos santos
    .
    Pedro, rafinha, cuenca